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Over 100 reported dead in Syria

Gunmen loyal to President Bashar Assad swept through Haswiyeh, a mainly Sunni farming village in central Syria, torching houses and killing more than 100 people, including women and children, opposition activists said Thursday. The reported slayings fueled accusations that pro-government militiamen are trying to drive majority Sunnis out of areas near main routes to the coast to ensure control of an Alawite enclave as Syria's civil war increasingly takes on sectarian overtones.

NORTH KOREA moves missile launchers

The discovery by U.S. intelligence agencies that North Korea is moving mobile missile launchers, some carrying a new generation of powerful rocket, has spurred fresh assessments of the intentions of the country's young new leader, Kim Jong Un, who has talked about economic reform but appears to be accelerating the country's ability to attack U.S. allies or forces in Asia, and ultimately to strike across the Pacific. On Thursday, speaking in Italy, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told U.S. troops he was increasingly worried about another, much longer-range North Korean missile, one that was successfully tested last month and reached as far as the Philippines, and could lob a warhead much farther, perhaps as far as Hawaii.

PAKISTANI PREACHER REACHES accord

Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, the preacher turned political activist who returned from years in Canada to lead thousands of his supporters to occupy the heart of the Pakistani capital, ended his protest Thursday night after the government granted his party largely symbolic input into the country's electoral process. Qadri failed to achieve his headline aims, such as the immediate dissolution of President Asif Ali Zardari's government and the installation of a temporary administration led by technocrats – demands that, together with a striking military silence about his movement, had stoked fears of army interference in politics.

Iraq bombs kill 26, mostly Shiites

Insurgents unleashed a string of bomb attacks mainly targeting Shiite Muslim pilgrims across Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 26 people. The violence that left nearly 60 dead since Wednesday followed nearly two weeks of relative calm. Shiite pilgrims are a favorite target for Sunni insurgents who seek to undermine the country's Shiite-led government and provoke sectarian fighting.

RAINS PARALYZE INDONESIAN CAPITAL

Torrential rains caused flooding that paralyzed much of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, resulting in at least four deaths and forcing the evacuations of tens of thousands of others. Parts of the capital were under at least six feet of water, and even the presidential palace was not spared as waters rushed into the complex. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appeared on television standing shin-deep in water. “It's OK if the palace is flooded,” he said. “What is important is that the people are protected.” Thirteen rivers run through Jakarta, but poor drainage caused by garbage and the depletion of wells has intensified the impact of the flooding. Widespread deforestation has also been blamed for increasing runoff in surrounding areas.

FBI director in Libya to review probe

FBI Director Robert Mueller met with top Libyan officials on Thursday to discuss the probe into last year's killing of the U.S. ambassador in Benghazi, where authorities are planning a curfew following an upsurge in violence, Libyan officials said. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed on Sept. 11, 2012, in an attack that Washington officials suspect was carried out by militants linked to the al-Qaida terrorist group. There has been little news of progress in the investigation, and U.S. officials have complained about poor cooperation with governments in the region. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the visit, said Mueller discussed the case in Tripoli with the prime minister, justice minister and intelligence chief.

U.N. APOLOGIZES FOR hailing SERB SONG

At the conclusion of the Serbian anthem “March on the Drina” at a concert this week in the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other senior officials rose in a standing ovation – apparently not realizing that the anthem is associated with massacres carried out in the 1990s against civilians who were under the protection of U.N. peacekeepers. After Bosnian survivor organizations protested the playing of the song and Ban's reaction, the U.N. apologized Thursday.

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